Contents

The Security Council was concerned at the lack of progress towards a political solution to the dispute between Morocco and the Polisario Front, which remained a potential source of instability to the Maghreb region.[4] It reaffirmed its commitment to assist the parties in achieving a durable solution which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara. The parties were commended for their respect of the ceasefire and MINURSO's efforts were also praised.

Acting under Chapter VI of the United Nations Charter, the Council supported the Baker Plan as the "optimum political solution" to the dispute and called upon both parties to work towards the acceptance and implementation of the plan.[5] Furthermore, the parties and states in the region were asked to co-operate with the Secretary-General and his Personal Envoy.[4]

1.
United Nations Security Council
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The Security Council held its first session on 17 January 1946. Like the UN as a whole, the Security Council was created following World War II to address the failings of an international organization. The Security Council consists of fifteen members, the great powers that were the victors of World War II—the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France, Republic of China, and the United States—serve as the bodys five permanent members. These permanent members can veto any substantive Security Council resolution, including those on the admission of new member states or candidates for Secretary-General, the Security Council also has 10 non-permanent members, elected on a regional basis to serve two-year terms. The bodys presidency rotates monthly among its members, Security Council resolutions are typically enforced by UN peacekeepers, military forces voluntarily provided by member states and funded independently of the main UN budget. As of 2016,103,510 peacekeeping soldiers and 16,471 civilians are deployed on 16 peacekeeping operations and 1 special political mission. Following the catastrophic loss of life in World War I, the Paris Peace Conference established the League of Nations to maintain harmony between the nations, the earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the US State Department in 1939. The term United Nations was first officially used when 26 governments signed this Declaration, by 1 March 1945,21 additional states had signed. The most contentious issue at Dumbarton and in successive talks proved to be the rights of permanent members. At the conference, H. V. Evatt of the Australian delegation pushed to further restrict the power of Security Council permanent members. Due to the fear that rejecting the strong veto would cause the conferences failure, the UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945 upon ratification of the Charter by the five then-permanent members of the Security Council and by a majority of the other 46 signatories. On 17 January 1946, the Security Council met for the first time at Church House, Westminster, in London, United Kingdom. The Security Council was largely paralysed in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and USSR and their allies, and the Council generally was only able to intervene in unrelated conflicts. Cold War divisions also paralysed the Security Councils Military Staff Committee, the committee continued to exist on paper but largely abandoned its work in the mid-1950s. By the 1970s, the UN budget for social and economic development was far greater than its budget for peacekeeping. After the Cold War, the UN saw an expansion in its peacekeeping duties. Between 1988 and 2000, the number of adopted Security Council resolutions more than doubled, undersecretary-General Brian Urquhart later described the hopes raised by these successes as a false renaissance for the organization, given the more troubled missions that followed. In 1994, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda failed to intervene in the Rwandan Genocide in the face of Security Council indecision, in the late 1990s, UN-authorised international interventions took a wider variety of forms

2.
Boujdour
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Cape Bojador is a headland on the northern coast of Western Sahara, at 26°07 37N, 14°29 57W. as well as the name of the large nearby town with a population of 41,178. The name of the province also derives its name from the cape. It is shown on charts with the original Portuguese name Cabo Bojador. It is said that it is known as the Bulging Cape. The Capes name in Arabic is Abu Khatar, meaning the father of danger, the cape is not prominent on maps but may be located by looking 220 km due south of the south-western point of the hook of Fuerteventura, Canary Islands. Eanes had made an attempt in 1433 which resulted in failure, but tried again under orders of Prince Henry the Navigator. He was successful after the second expedition, the disappearance of numerous European vessels that had made prior attempts to round the Cape despite its violent seas, led some to suggest the presence of sea monsters. The regions coastal areas became a very important area for Portuguese traders. The mythic importance of the cape for Portugal was captured in Fernando Pessoas early 20th century work Mensagem, in famous stanzas from this longer poem Pessoa wrote of the enormous costs of the Portuguese explorations to the nation. Capturing the symbolic importance to the nation of rounding Cape Bojador, Pessoa wrote, Who wants to pass beyond Bojador and they thought the ocean was burning past cape Bojador but Henrys men went past Bojador. A rocky patch, with a least depth of 8m, lies about 2 miles W of the cape, the coast between Cabo Falso Bojador and Cabo Bojador,10 miles SW, consists of a sandy beach fringed by rocks. Clumps of scrub top the sand dunes which stand about 0.5 mile inland of this beach, heavy breakers have been observed along this coast at all times. Cabo Bojador, a low point, is located 9.5 miles SW of Cabo Falso Bojador and is bordered on the S side by black rocks. From the N, the cape appears as a mass of red sand with a slope towards the sea. From the W, the cape is difficult to identify, and it is here that the winds start to blow strongly from the northeast at all seasons. In the end it was discovered that by sailing well out to out of sight of land—a more favorable wind could be picked up. This tragedy is recounted in the Skeletons on the Zahara, by Dean King, Dean reports that any coastal map of Western Sahara is inaccurate because of the ever-changing physical features, due to the harsh conditions of the Sahara. It also mentions that the depth of the water surrounding Cape Bojador is deceptively shallow, the cape had a fearsome reputation among mariners even prior to the wreck of the Commerce, as there had been at least thirty known shipwrecks between 1790 and 1806

3.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing

4.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks

5.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians

6.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state‍—‌the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government

7.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci

8.
Angola
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Angola /æŋˈɡoʊlə/, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country in Southern Africa. It is the seventh-largest country in Africa and is bordered by Namibia to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Zambia to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to west. The exclave province of Cabinda has borders with the Republic of the Congo, the capital and largest city of Angola is Luanda. In the 19th century, European settlers slowly and hesitantly began to themselves in the interior. As a Portuguese colony, Angola did not encompass its present borders until the early 20th century, following resistance by groups such as the Cuamato, the Kwanyama and the Mbunda. Independence was achieved in 1975 under a communist one-party state backed by the Soviet Union, however, the country soon descended into an even lengthier civil war that lasted until 2002. It has since become a relatively stable presidential republic. Angola has vast mineral and petroleum reserves, and its economy is among the fastest growing in the world, Angolas economic growth is highly uneven, with the majority of the nations wealth concentrated in a disproportionately small sector of the population. Angola is a state of the United Nations, OPEC, African Union, the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, the Latin Union. A highly multiethnic country, Angolas 25.8 million people span various tribal groups, customs, Angolan culture reflects centuries of Portuguese rule, namely in the predominance of the Portuguese language and the Catholic Church, combined with diverse indigenous influences. The name Angola comes from the Portuguese colonial name Reino de Angola, the toponym was derived by the Portuguese from the title ngola held by the kings of Ndongo. Ndongo was a kingdom in the highlands, between the Kwanza and Lukala Rivers, nominally tributary to the king of Kongo but which was seeking greater independence during the 16th century, modern Angola was populated predominantly by nomadic Khoi and San prior to the first Bantu migrations. The Khoi and San peoples were neither pastoralists nor cultivators, following a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and they were displaced by Bantu peoples arriving from the north, some of whom likely originated in northwestern Nigeria. Bantu speakers introduced the cultivation of bananas and taro, as well as large herds, to Angolas central highlands. During this time, the Bantu established a number of entities in most of what today comprises Angola. To its south lay the Kingdom of Ndongo, from which the area of the later Portuguese colony was known as Dongo. The region now known as Angola was reached by the Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão in 1484, the year before, the Portuguese had established relations with the Kongo, which stretched at the time from modern Gabon in the north to the Kwanza River in the south. The Portuguese established their primary trading post at Soyo, which is now the northernmost city in Angola apart from the Cabinda exclave

9.
Bulgaria
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Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, with a territory of 110,994 square kilometres, Bulgaria is Europes 16th-largest country. Organised prehistoric cultures began developing on current Bulgarian lands during the Neolithic period and its ancient history saw the presence of the Thracians, Greeks, Persians, Celts, Romans, Goths, Alans and Huns. With the downfall of the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1396, its territories came under Ottoman rule for five centuries. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 led to the formation of the Third Bulgarian State, the following years saw several conflicts with its neighbours, which prompted Bulgaria to align with Germany in both world wars. In 1946 it became a one-party socialist state as part of the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc, in December 1989 the ruling Communist Party allowed multi-party elections, which subsequently led to Bulgarias transition into a democracy and a market-based economy. Bulgarias population of 7.2 million people is predominantly urbanised, most commercial and cultural activities are centred on the capital and largest city, Sofia. The strongest sectors of the economy are industry, power engineering. The countrys current political structure dates to the adoption of a constitution in 1991. Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic with a high degree of political, administrative. Human activity in the lands of modern Bulgaria can be traced back to the Paleolithic, animal bones incised with man-made markings from Kozarnika cave are assumed to be the earliest examples of symbolic behaviour in humans. Organised prehistoric societies in Bulgarian lands include the Neolithic Hamangia culture, Vinča culture, the latter is credited with inventing gold working and exploitation. Some of these first gold smelters produced the coins, weapons and jewellery of the Varna Necropolis treasure and this site also offers insights for understanding the social hierarchy of the earliest European societies. Thracians, one of the three primary groups of modern Bulgarians, began appearing in the region during the Iron Age. In the late 6th century BC, the Persians conquered most of present-day Bulgaria, and kept it until 479 BC. After the division of the Roman Empire in the 5th century the area fell under Byzantine control, by this time, Christianity had already spread in the region. A small Gothic community in Nicopolis ad Istrum produced the first Germanic language book in the 4th century, the first Christian monastery in Europe was established around the same time by Saint Athanasius in central Bulgaria. From the 6th century the easternmost South Slavs gradually settled in the region, in 680 Bulgar tribes under the leadership of Asparukh moved south across the Danube and settled in the area between the lower Danube and the Balkan, establishing their capital at Pliska

10.
Chile
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Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a South American country occupying a long, narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, Chilean territory includes the Pacific islands of Juan Fernández, Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas, and Easter Island in Oceania. Chile also claims about 1,250,000 square kilometres of Antarctica, the arid Atacama Desert in northern Chile contains great mineral wealth, principally copper. Southern Chile is rich in forests and grazing lands, and features a string of volcanoes and lakes, the southern coast is a labyrinth of fjords, inlets, canals, twisting peninsulas, and islands. Spain conquered and colonized Chile in the century, replacing Inca rule in northern and central Chile. After declaring its independence from Spain in 1818, Chile emerged in the 1830s as a relatively stable authoritarian republic, in the 1960s and 1970s the country experienced severe left-right political polarization and turmoil. The regime, headed by Augusto Pinochet, ended in 1990 after it lost a referendum in 1988 and was succeeded by a coalition which ruled through four presidencies until 2010. Chile is today one of South Americas most stable and prosperous nations and it leads Latin American nations in rankings of human development, competitiveness, income per capita, globalization, state of peace, economic freedom, and low perception of corruption. It also ranks high regionally in sustainability of the state, Chile is a founding member of the United Nations, the Union of South American Nations and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. There are various theories about the origin of the word Chile, another theory points to the similarity of the valley of the Aconcagua with that of the Casma Valley in Peru, where there was a town and valley named Chili. Another origin attributed to chilli is the onomatopoeic cheele-cheele—the Mapuche imitation of the warble of a locally known as trile. The Spanish conquistadors heard about this name from the Incas, ultimately, Almagro is credited with the universalization of the name Chile, after naming the Mapocho valley as such. The older spelling Chili was in use in English until at least 1900 before switching over to Chile, stone tool evidence indicates humans sporadically frequented the Monte Verde valley area as long as 18,500 years ago. About 10,000 years ago, migrating Native Americans settled in fertile valleys, settlement sites from very early human habitation include Monte Verde, Cueva del Milodon and the Pali Aike Craters lava tube. They fought against the Sapa Inca Tupac Yupanqui and his army, the result of the bloody three-day confrontation known as the Battle of the Maule was that the Inca conquest of the territories of Chile ended at the Maule river. The next Europeans to reach Chile were Diego de Almagro and his band of Spanish conquistadors, the Spanish encountered various cultures that supported themselves principally through slash-and-burn agriculture and hunting. The conquest of Chile began in earnest in 1540 and was carried out by Pedro de Valdivia, one of Francisco Pizarros lieutenants, who founded the city of Santiago on 12 February 1541. Although the Spanish did not find the gold and silver they sought, they recognized the agricultural potential of Chiles central valley

11.
Cameroon
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Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Cameroons coastline lies on the Bight of Biafra, part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. French and English are the languages of Cameroon. The country is referred to as Africa in miniature for its geological and cultural diversity. Natural features include beaches, deserts, mountains, rainforests, the country is well known for its native styles of music, particularly makossa and bikutsi, and for its successful national football team. Early inhabitants of the territory included the Sao civilisation around Lake Chad, portuguese explorers reached the coast in the 15th century and named the area Rio dos Camarões, which became Cameroon in English. Fulani soldiers founded the Adamawa Emirate in the north in the 19th century, Cameroon became a German colony in 1884 known as Kamerun. After World War I, the territory was divided between France and the United Kingdom as League of Nations mandates, the Union des Populations du Cameroun political party advocated independence, but was outlawed by France in the 1950s, leading to the Cameroonian Independence War. It waged war on French and UPC militant forces until 1971, in 1960, the French-administered part of Cameroon became independent as the Republic of Cameroun under President Ahmadou Ahidjo. The southern part of British Cameroons federated with it in 1961 to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon, the federation was abandoned in 1972. The country was renamed the United Republic of Cameroon in 1972, Cameroon enjoys relatively high political and social stability. This has permitted the development of agriculture, roads, railways, nevertheless, large numbers of Cameroonians live in poverty as subsistence farmers. Power lies firmly in the hands of the president since 1982, Paul Biya. The English-speaking territories of Cameroon have grown increasingly alienated from the government, politicians and civil society in English-speaking regions have called for greater decentralization and even complete separation or independence from the former French-governed territories. The territory of present-day Cameroon was first settled during the Neolithic Era, the longest continuous inhabitants are groups such as the Baka. From here, Bantu migrations into eastern, southern, and central Africa are believed to have originated about 2,000 years ago, the Sao culture arose around Lake Chad c. AD500 and gave way to the Kanem and its successor state, kingdoms, fondoms, and chiefdoms arose in the west. Portuguese sailors reached the coast in 1472 and they noted an abundance of the ghost shrimp Lepidophthalmus turneranus in the Wouri River and named it Rio dos Camarões, which became Cameroon in English

12.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed

13.
Guinea
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Guinea /ˈɡɪni/, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a country on the West coast of Africa. Guinea has a population of 10.5 million and an area of 245,860 square kilometres, the president is directly elected by the people and is head of state and head of government. The unicameral Guinean National Assembly is the body of the country. The judicial branch is led by the Guinea Supreme Court, the highest, the country is named after the Guinea region. Guinea is a name for the region of Africa that lies along the Gulf of Guinea. It stretches north through the tropical regions and ends at the Sahel. Guinea is a predominantly Islamic country, with Muslims representing 85 percent of the population, Guineas people belong to twenty-four ethnic groups. French, the language of Guinea, is the main language of communication in schools, in government administration, and the media. Guineas economy is dependent on agriculture and mineral production. It is the second largest producer of bauxite, and has rich deposits of diamonds. The country was at the core of the 2014 Ebola outbreak, human rights in Guinea remain a controversial issue. In 2011 the United States government claimed that torture by security forces, the land that is now Guinea belonged to a series of African empires until France colonized it in the 1890s, and made it part of French West Africa. Guinea declared its independence from France on 2 October 1958, from independence until the presidential election of 2010, Guinea was governed by a number of autocratic rulers. What is now Guinea was on the fringes of the major West African empires, the Ghana Empire is believed to be the earliest of these which grew on trade but contracted and ultimately fell due to the hostile influence of the Almoravids. It was in period that Islam first arrived in the region. The Mali Empire was ruled by Mansa, the most famous being Kankou Moussa, shortly after his reign the Mali Empire began to decline and was ultimately supplanted by its vassal states in the 15th century. The most successful of these was the Songhai Empire, which expanded its power from about 1460 and it continued to prosper until a civil war over succession followed the death of Askia Daoud in 1582. The weakened empire fell to invaders from Morocco at the Battle of Tondibi just three years later, the Moroccans proved unable to rule the kingdom effectively, however, and it split into many small kingdoms

14.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth

15.
Syria
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Syrias capital and largest city is Damascus. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Sunni Arabs make up the largest religious group in Syria. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, in the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a number of military coups. In 1958, Syria entered a union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000. Mainstream modern academic opinion strongly favours the argument that the Greek word is related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, in the past, others believed that it was derived from Siryon, the name that the Sidonians gave to Mount Hermon. However, the discovery of the inscription in 2000 seems to support the theory that the term Syria derives from Assyria. The area designated by the word has changed over time, since approximately 10,000 BC, Syria was one of centers of Neolithic culture where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. The following Neolithic period is represented by houses of Mureybet culture. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gyps, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations. Cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic, archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria was one of the most ancient on earth, perhaps preceded by only those of Mesopotamia. The earliest recorded indigenous civilisation in the region was the Kingdom of Ebla near present-day Idlib, gifts from Pharaohs, found during excavations, confirm Eblas contact with Egypt. One of the earliest written texts from Syria is an agreement between Vizier Ibrium of Ebla and an ambiguous kingdom called Abarsal c.2300 BC. The Northwest Semitic language of the Amorites is the earliest attested of the Canaanite languages, Mari reemerged during this period, and saw renewed prosperity until conquered by Hammurabi of Babylon. Ugarit also arose during this time, circa 1800 BC, close to modern Latakia, Ugaritic was a Semitic language loosely related to the Canaanite languages, and developed the Ugaritic alphabet. The Ugarites kingdom survived until its destruction at the hands of the marauding Indo-European Sea Peoples in the 12th century BC, Yamhad was described in the tablets of Mari as the mightiest state in the near east and as having more vassals than Hammurabi of Babylon. Yamhad imposed its authority over Alalakh, Qatna, the Hurrians states, the army of Yamhad campaigned as far away as Dēr on the border of Elam

16.
Western Sahara conflict
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The Western Sahara conflict is an ongoing conflict between the Polisario Front and the Kingdom of Morocco. The conflict is the continuation of the past insurgency by Polisario against the Spanish colonial forces in 1973–75, today the conflict is dominated by unarmed civil campaigns of the Polisario Front and their self-proclaimed SADR state to gain fully recognized independence for Western Sahara. The conflict escalated after the withdrawal of Spain from the Spanish Sahara in accordance with the Madrid Accords, beginning in 1975, the Polisario Front, backed and supported by Algeria, waged a 16-year-long war for independence against Mauritania and Morocco. In 1977, France intervened, as the conflict reached its peak intensity, in 1979, Mauritania withdrew from the conflict and territories, leading to a stalemate through most of the 1980s. After several more engagements between 1989 and 1991, a agreement was reached between the Polisario Front and the Moroccan government. At present, these borders are largely unchanged, in late 2010, the protests re-erupted in the Gdeim Izik refugee camp in Western Sahara. While the protests were peaceful, they were later marked by clashes between civilians and security forces, resulting in dozens of casualties on both sides. Though sporadic demonstrations continue, the movement had subsided by May 2011. In 1884 Spain claimed a protectorate over the coast from Cape Bojador to Cap Blanc, later, the Spanish extended their area of control. In 1958 Spain merged the separate districts of Saguia el-Hamra. Raids and rebellions by the indigenous Sahrawi population kept the Spanish forces out of much of the Spanish-claimed territory for a long time, ma al-Aynayn died in October 1910, and his son El Hiba succeeded him. El Hibas forces were defeated during a campaign to conquer Marrakesh. The city was rebuilt, and Sahrawi resistance continued for the following twenty years. The rebellious territory was subdued in 1934, after joint Spanish. In 1956 the Ifni War, initiated by the Moroccan Army of Liberation, marked renewed conflict in the region, however, unrest lingered among the regions population, and in 1967 the Harakat Tahrir arose to challenge Spanish rule peacefully. In 1971 a group of young Sahrawi students in the universities of Morocco began organizing what came to be known as The Embryonic Movement for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra, as a result of this ambivalence, the movement eventually relocated to Spanish-controlled Western Sahara to start an armed rebellion. Women in Western Sahara are prominent members of the Polisario Front as soldiers, the Polisario Front was formally constituted on 10 May 1973 in the Mauritanian city of Zouirate, with the express intention of militarily forcing an end to Spanish colonization. Its first Secretary General was El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed, on 20 May he led the Khanga raid, the Polisarios first armed action, in which a Spanish post manned by a team of Tropas Nomadas was overrun and a cache of rifles seized

17.
Spanish Sahara
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Spanish Sahara was the name used for the modern territory of Western Sahara when it was occupied and ruled as a territory by Spain between 1884 and 1975. It had been one of the most recent acquisitions of the Spanish Empire, as well as one of its last remaining holdings, Spain gave up its Saharan possession following Moroccan demands and international pressure, mainly from United Nations resolutions regarding decolonisation. There was internal pressure from the native Sahrawi population and the claims of Morocco, Mauritania also claimed the territory for a number of years based on its history, and then dropped all claims. In 1991 the UN negotiated a ceasefire, and has tried to arrange negotiations, Morocco controls the entire Atlantic coast and most of the landmass, population, and natural resources of Western Sahara. Before and during the Spanish occupation, the territory was inhabited by Saharan Arabs who lived in many oases and they worked mainly in fishing and camel herding. They speak Hassaniya language, a Bedouin Arabic dialect, there is some dispute and ambiguity about whether the territory was under Moroccan royal sovereignty at the time when the Spanish claimed it in 1884. It officially informed the other powers in writing on 14 January 1885 and it began establishing trading posts and a military presence. In July 1885, the king appointed Emilio Bonelli commissioner of the Río de Oro with civil, on 6 April 1887, it was incorporated into the Captaincy General of the Canary Islands for military purposes. At the time, geographers had not mapped the territory and its features were not widely known and their trek is considered the first scientific expedition in that part of the Sahara. In 1886, Spain signed the Treaty of Idjil by which the emirate of Adrar ceded the land of the colony to Spain, the borders of the territory were not clearly defined until treaties between Spain and France in the early 20th century. Spanish Sahara was created from the Spanish territories of Río de Oro and it was not part of the areas known as Spanish Morocco and was administered separately from them. On entering the territory in 1884, Spain was immediately challenged by stiff resistance from the indigenous Sahrawi tribes, a 1904 rebellion led by the powerful Smara-based marabout, Shaykh Ma al-Aynayn, was put down by France in 1910, which ruled neighboring Algeria. This was followed by a wave of uprisings under Ma al-Aynayns sons, grandsons, tribal uprisings meant that Spain found it difficult to control parts of the territorys large hinterland until 1934. After gaining independence in 1956, Morocco laid claim on Spanish Sahara as part of its historic pre-colonial territory, in 1957, the Moroccan Army of Liberation nearly occupied the small territory of Sidi-Ifni, north of Spanish Sahara, during the Ifni War. The Spanish sent a regiment of paratroopers from the nearby Canary Islands and were able to repel the attacks, with the assistance of the French, Spain soon re-established control in the area through Operaciones Teide-Ecoubillon. It tried to suppress resistance politically and it forced some of the previously nomadic inhabitants of Spanish Sahara to settle in certain areas, and the rate of urbanization was increased. In the same year, Spain united the territories of Saguia el Hamra and Río de Oro to form the province of Spanish Sahara, while ceding the provinces of Tarfaya, in the 1960s, Morocco continued to claim Spanish Sahara. It gained agreement by the United Nations to add the territory to the list of territories to be decolonized, in 1969, Spain returned Ifni to Morocco, but continued to retain Spanish Sahara

18.
Greater Morocco
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Current usage most frequently occurs in a critical context accusing Morocco, largely in discussing the disputed Western Sahara, of irredentist claims on neighbouring territories. Irredentists, official and unofficial Moroccan claims on territories viewed by Moroccans as having been some form of Moroccan sovereignty are rhetorically tied back to an accused expansionism. However, Moroccan government claims make no current reference to the greater Morocco concept, in 1963, following the Independence of Algeria, Morocco attacked a strip of its south-western regions, claiming that parts of them were previously under Moroccan sovereignty. After a month of fighting and some hundreds of casualties, the conflict stalemated and this was initially not supported by the Sultan of Morocco. Al-Fassis ambitions gained more support in parliament in the beginning of the sixties, al-Fassis wider claims were effectively abandoned in the later sixties, although Morocco claims Western Sahara and the Spanish plazas de soberanía on its northern coast. Moroccos refusal to accept its post-colonial borders in the case of Western Sahara has put it on a course with the African Union. As a consequence, Morocco is the only African country to step out of the union, because the Polisario Front, on July 11,2002 a group of Moroccan soldiers set up base on the islet. After protests from the Spanish government, led by José María Aznar, on the morning of July 18,2002 Spain launched a full-scale military operation to take over the island

19.
Greater Mauritania
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Greater Mauritania is a term for the Mauritanian irredentist claim to Western Sahara, and possibly other Moorish or Sahrawi-populated areas of the western Sahara desert. The term was first used by Mauritanias first president, Mokhtar Ould Daddah, in 1957, Ould Daddah stated I therefore call on our brothers in the Spanish Sahara to dream of this economic and spiritual Greater Mauritania of which we cannot speak at present. I address to them and I ask you to repeat to them a message of friendship, both areas had been part of the premodern Bilad Chinguetti, the Land of Chinguetti, a religious center in contemporary Mauritania. The claim to the Spanish Sahara was again popularized by the regime in the early 1970s, the idea helped build unity at home, and to hold back Moroccan expansionism. The Mauritanian portion of the territory, corresponding to the half of Río de Oro. The takeover was violently opposed by an indigenous independence movement, the Polisario Front. The ensuing war went badly for Mauritania, and Ould Daddahs government fell in 1978, the country left Tiris al-Gharbiyya the following year, renouncing all claims to any part of Western Sahara, and recognizing the Polisario Front as its peoples legitimate representative. Relations with Rabat deteriorated rapidly, and amid allegations of Moroccan backing for attempted coups and minor armed clashes, Mauritania drew closer to Algeria, the government later established formal relations with the Fronts government-in-exile, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, as a recognized sovereign over the territory. The vision of Greater Mauritania holds little appeal in todays Mauritania, while still recognizing the Sahrawi republic, Mauritania has largely mended relations with Morocco and now generally seeks to stay out of the Western Sahara dispute, which remains unresolved. History of Western Sahara Greater Morocco Irredentism Douglas E. Ashford, Johns Hopkins University, The Irredentist Appeal in Morocco and Mauritania, The Western Political Quarterly, Vol.15, tony Hodges, Western Sahara, The Roots of a Desert War, Lawrence Hill Books. John Mercer, Spanish Sahara, George Allen & Unwid Ltd. Jacob Mundy, how the US and Morocco seized Western Sahara. Zekeria Ould Ahmed Salem, Mauritania, A Saharan Frontier State, Journal of North Africa Studies, Vol.10, anthony G. Pazzanita, Historical Dictionary of Mauritania, 2nd ed, Scarecrow Press. Anthony G. Pazzanita, Historical Dictionary of Western Sahara, 3rd ed, C. R. Pennell, Morocco since 1830. A History, New York University Press, virginia Thompson and Richard Adloff, The Western Saharans. Background to Conflict, Barnes & Noble Books

20.
Polisario Front
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It is an observer member of the Socialist International. The United Nations considers the Polisario Front to be the representative of the Sahrawi people. The Polisario Front is outlawed in the parts of Western Sahara under Moroccan control and they called themselves the Constituent Congress of the Polisario Front. Its first Secretary General was El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed, on 20 May, the new organization attacked El-Khanga, where there was a Spanish post manned by a team of Tropas Nomadas was overrun and rifles seized. At this point, Polisarios manpower included perhaps 800 men and women, with Algerias help, Polisario set up headquarters in Tindouf. Upon Spains withdrawal, and in application of the Madrid Accords in 1976, the Polisario Front proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic on 27 February 1976, and waged a guerrilla war against both Morocco and Mauritania. The World Court at The Hague had issued its verdict on the former Spanish colony just weeks before, for the next two years the movement grew tremendously as Sahrawi refugees continued flocking to the camps and Algeria and Libya supplied arms and funding. Within months, its army had expanded to several thousand armed fighters, camels were replaced by modern jeeps, the reorganized army was able to inflict severe damage through guerrilla-style hit-and-run attacks against opposing forces in Western Sahara and in Morocco and Mauritania proper. A comprehensive peace treaty was signed on 5 August 1979, in which the new government recognized Sahrawi rights to Western Sahara, Mauritania withdrew all its forces and would later proceed to formally recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, causing a massive rupture in relations with Morocco. King Hassan II of Morocco immediately claimed the area of Western Sahara evacuated by Mauritania, a cease-fire between the Polisario Front and Morocco, monitored by MINURSO, has been in effect since 6 September 1991, on the promise of a referendum on independence the following year. However, the referendum stalled over disagreements on voter rights, numerous attempts to restart the process seem to have failed. The Polisario has repeatedly threatened to resume if a referendum cannot be held. Pressures on the leadership from the population to resume fighting are apparent. The project was presented to the United Nations Security Council in mid-April 2007 and this led to the negotiations process known as the Manhasset negotiations. Four rounds were held in 2007 and 2008, no progress was made, however, Polisario agreed to add autonomy as per the Moroccan proposal to a referendum ballot, but refused to relinquish the concept of an independence referendum itself, as agreed in 1991 and 1997. Morocco, in its turn, insisted on negotiating the terms of autonomy offered. The Polisario is first and foremost a nationalist organization, whose goal is the independence of Western Sahara. It has stated that ideological disputes should be left for a future democratic Western Sahara to deal with and it views itself as a front encompassing all political trends in Sahrawi society, and not as a political party

21.
Sahrawi National Union Party
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Partido de Unión Nacional Saharaui was a short-lived political party set up by Francoist Spain to rally indigenous support in its rebellious Spanish Sahara colony. The PUNS was created in late 1974 as the Partido Revolucionario Progresivo and it was composed mainly of members of the Djemaa, a tribalist political body set up for similar purposes in the 1950s. Its flag is based on the Spanish flag for the Ifni-Sahara maritime province, PUNS was during its time the only legal party within the territory of Francoist Spain, except the ruling Falange Española. PUNS was allowed to send delegates to the Cortes in Madrid and it had no decision making powers, and was more an instrument of the military governors in Western Sahara. Its leaders and creators, Khellihenna Ould Errachid and Dueh Sidna Naucha, the partys political program was supportive of Spain, and changed according to the rapid evolution of Spanish policy. In first months of its existence, its activity mainly consisted of statements denouncing the Polisario Front. PUNS also advocated independence as a distant goal to be preceded by autonomy within Spain, many members were also present at the Ain Ben Tili and Guelta Zemmur conferences, although not as representatives of the party, but rather of the Djemaa or their tribal groupings. In addition to this, Polisario remained distrustful, and did not accept the demand of PUNS leaders to form a political front while preserving the partys internal structure. El-Ouali instead insisted that the PUNS dissolve itself and that its supporters could join the Polisario Front as regular members, on July 6,1975, the first clashes between PUNS and Polisario membership took place in El Aaiun, with several wounded. The night before, the PUNS offices in Smara were burned by POLISARIO members, as Morocco and Mauritania invaded in November 1975, after the Madrid Accords, Spain abandoned PUNS, and what little remained of the party instantly collapsed. Its membership dispersed, many were away in the refugee exodus to Tindouf, Algeria. Dueh Sidina Naucha went to Spain in 1975, in 1987 he surprisingly reappeared in the Liberated Territories during a UN technical visiting mission. He declared that though not a Polisario member, he is a Sahrawi. Naucha added that after the Green March our 20,000 militants integrated the POLISARIO and he now lives in the Canary Islands. A very small number of activists went to Mauritania, supporting the Ould Daddah governments claims on the territory until its collapse in 1978. Tony Hodges, Western Sahara, The Roots of a Desert War, Lawrence Hill Books Anthony G. Pazzanita and Tony Hodges, Historical Dictionary of Western Sahara, Scarecrow Press

22.
Southern Provinces
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The Southern Provinces or Moroccan Sahara are the terms used by the Moroccan government for Western Sahara. These two official Moroccan denominations explicitly include all of Western Sahara, the Moroccan government favours Southern Provinces for its geographical obviousness, and because of the sensitivity of the word Sahara in Morocco. The Polisario Front controls the remaining fifth, which is isolated from the ocean, mostly empty of any population, dry, the two thirds of Western Sahara that are controlled by Morocco are treated by the government as normal Moroccan territory. Morocco then seized the opportunity and took control of the part of Río de Oro as well. Since a United Nations-sponsored ceasefire agreement in 1991, about two thirds of the territory is administered by Morocco, including all the seacoasts, due to the construction of the Moroccan Wall, the Polisario Front controls most of the remainder, which is almost unpopulated. Polisarios army is considered incapable of covering the vast one-third of Western Sahara, moreover, most of Polisarios army is thought to be concentrated in the Tinduf area inside Algeria, safe from the long arm of Moroccos superior artillery and air force. The cease-fire line corresponds to the route of the weaponized Moroccan Wall, both sides claim the territory of Western Sahara in its entirety. The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic had been recognized by 84 nations, and is a member of the African Union. Moroccan territorial integrity is implicitly recognized by the Arab League with strong reservations from Algeria and Syria, administratively, Morocco divided the territory under its control into administrative units. Flags and coats of arms were created for the three wilayas of Boujdour, Smara and Laayoune, there were further changes in the territories in 1983, with the area becoming four wilayas through the addition of Dakhla. In 1990 Wadi al-Dhahab was added, Morocco has assigned a special satellite TV channel for the Southern Provinces, called Laayoun TV. Following the 1975 Green March, the Moroccan state has sponsored settlement schemes enticing thousands of Moroccans to move into the Moroccan-occupied part of Western Sahara, by 2015, it was estimated that Moroccan settlers made up at least two thirds of the 500,000 inhabitants

23.
Tiris al-Gharbiyya
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Tiris al-Gharbiyya was the name for the area of Western Sahara under Mauritanian control between 1975 and 1979. Mauritania annexed the southern third of the former Spanish colony of Spanish Sahara in 1975 after the Madrid Accords, the latter was the preferred option of the Polisario Front, a Sahrawi organization which turned its guerrilla forces against both countries, having until then fought Spain. Its attacks against Mauritania proved highly effective, in 1978, the one-party government of Moktar Ould Daddah was severely compromised by the failing war effort, and fell to a coup by disgruntled army officers. Mauritania then disengaged from the conflict, surrendering its claims to any part of Western Sahara, the areas occupied by Mauritania were entered by Morocco, which has since claimed ownership over the entire territory, despite continued opposition by Polisario, and its main backer, Algeria. Mauritanian president Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla in 1984 proceeded to recognize the Polisario-backed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as the sovereign of the area. After his toppling in yet another military coup détat later the same year, Western Tiris was the lower half of Río de Oro, the southern province of the former Spanish Sahara, comprising 88,000 km² with a population of 12,897. It consisted mostly of desert terrain, scarcely populated except by some thousands of Sahrawi nomads. A few minor settlements dotted the coast, and the largest of these and it remains mostly unexplored and unexploited to this day. The exception is the rich Atlantic fishing waters and they were never put to use by Mauritania, but have since been fished by Morocco and foreign ships under Moroccan licenses. The name Tiris refers to a plain of the Sahara. Mauritanias northernmost province is similarly called Tiris Zemmour, where Zemmour refers to a range in central Western Sahara. The Ould Daddah governments claims to the territory was based in the cultural and tribal ties between the Moorish inhabitants of Mauritania, and the tribes of Western Sahara. The government argued they were all part of the same people, but it also recognized that there had never been a Mauritanian state to claim the territory, since Mauritania itself was a modern-day creation of French colonialism. Instead, it recommended a standard self-determination process where Sahrawis were given the choice of merger with Mauritania and/or Morocco, in later years, the Mauritanian government has maintained a policy of strict neutrality between Polisario and Morocco, while retaining its recognition of the SADR. Minor parts of the Mauritanian political opposition will occasionally express interest in the area, other groups support either Polisario or Morocco. Free Zone History of Western Sahara History of Mauritania Regions of Mauritania Southern Provinces

24.
Free Zone (region)
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For Morocco, it is a buffer territory. The area is separated from the rest of the Western Sahara territory by a 2,200 kilometer -long wall. flanked by one of the worlds largest minefields, the border is often referred to as the Berm. The zone was established as a Polisario-held zone in a 1991 cease-fire between the Polisario Front and Morocco, which had agreed upon together as part of the Settlement Plan. Morocco controls the areas west of the Berm, including most of the territorys population, the cease-fire is overseen by the United Nations MINURSO forces, charged with peacekeeping in the area and the organization of a referendum on independence. The status of Western Sahara is hotly disputed between Polisario and Morocco, and this includes the names used to refer to areas under the control of the different sides and this zone serves as a division-of-forces no-mans land. Areas outside this zone are open to activity by the side that controls them, similarly, Polisario call the areas a liberated territory or the free zone, but this is not an official designation. The UN calls it simply east of the Berm, and refers to territories under Moroccan control as west of the Berm, according to the Settlement Plan, the movement of Polisario fighters is restricted similarly to how Moroccan forces face restrictions on their side of the Berm. Each of the five parts has specific restrictions as for the two parties military activities, Buffer Strip, No entry of RMA and FPOL personnel and equipment, No firing of weapons in or over the area. Restricted Areas, No firing of weapons and/or military training exercises, some exceptions apply and some activities are allowed after prior information to or approval by MINURSO. MINURSO need to be informed if the parties intend to conduct military exercises, the population of the territory east of the Wall is estimated to be between 30,000 -40,000 inhabitants. By comparison, it is estimated that 500,000 inhabitants live west of the Wall, following the 1975 Green March, the Moroccan state has sponsored settlement schemes enticing thousands of Moroccans to move into the Moroccan-occupied part. The major settlements on the zone are Tifariti, Bir Lehlou, Agounit, Meharrize, Mijek, Dougaj, access is difficult even for Sahrawis due to the harsh climate of the Sahara, the military conflict and the abundance of land mines. The area is inhabited primarily by Sahrawi nomads, that maintain the traditional camel herding of their ancestors, there is also a small merchant population, who sell goods to travellers. The total size of the Polisarios guerrilla army present in area is unknown. Some sources claim between 3, 000–6,000 men, while others rise the number up to 12,000 and these forces are dug into permanent positions, such as gun emplacements, defensive trenches and underground military bases, as well as conducting mobile patrols of the territory. Minurso reports that there are on average 2–4 such violations in the whole Western Sahara territory each month, in addition to this, there are several more violations related to local commanders on both sides refusing the inspection of their forces by Minurso personnel. As an example, the mission homepage quotes the month of June 2006, despite these minor breaches, there has to date been no serious hostile action from either side since 1991, and both sides of the Berm are considered calm by peacekeeping standards. Annual demonstrations against the Moroccan Wall are staged in the region by Sahrawis and international activists from Spain, Italy and these actions are closely monitored by the UN

25.
Political status of Western Sahara
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Western Sahara, formerly the Spanish colony of Spanish Sahara, is a disputed territory claimed by both the Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front. It is listed by the United Nations, as a territory and is thus included in the United Nations List of Non-Self-Governing Territories. Since the Madrid Accords of 1975, a part of Western Sahara has been administered by Morocco as the Southern Provinces, another section, the Liberated Territories, is administered by the Polisario Front as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Mauritania administers temporally the western half of the Ras Nouadhibou Peninsula, a UN-monitored cease-fire has been in effect since September 1991. Overall, the annexation has not garnered as much attention in the community as many other disputed annexations. The UN recognizes neither Moroccan nor SADR sovereignty over Western Sahara, the official position of the Kingdom of Morocco since 1963 is that all of Western Sahara is an integral part of the kingdom. The Moroccan government refers to Western Sahara only as Moroccan Sahara, according to the Moroccan government, in 1958 the Moroccan Army of Liberation fought Spanish colonizers and almost liberated what was then Spanish Sahara. The fathers of many of the Polisario leaders were among the veterans of the Moroccan Southern Army, Morocco is supported in this view by a number of former Polisario founders and leaders. It began as a movement of students who felt torn between the divergent Spanish and Moroccan influences on the country, the Polisario engaged in guerrilla warfare with the Moroccan and Mauritanian forces. It evacuated the Sahrawi population to the Tindouf refugee camps due to Royal Moroccan Air Force bombing of the camps on Sahrawi land with napalm. The Polisario Front has called for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara to be decided through a referendum, the Polisario Front argues that Moroccos position is due to economical interests and political reasons. The Polisario Front proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in Bir Lehlou, claims on Western Sahara had proliferated since the 1960s, fuelled by Mauritanian President Moktar Ould Daddah. In April 1976, Mauritania and Morocco partitioned the country into three parts, Mauritania getting the one, which was named Tiris al-Gharbiyya. Mauritania waged four years of war against Polisario guerrillas, conducting raids on Nouakchott, attacks on the Zouerate mine train, the Moroccan Army immediately took control of the former Mauritanian territory. Mauritania recognized the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic on 27 February 1984, algeria has supported the independence of the whole of Western Sahara since 1975, when Spanish forces and settlers withdrew from the area. It is one of the few countries to do so in the Arab League and it has provided aid to the Polisario Front. Algerias role became indirect, through political and military support for the Polisario Front, algeria recognized the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic on 6 March 1976. On the UN list of territories to be decolonized, when it was still a Spanish colony and it has retained that status due to the persistence of the conflict

26.
Foreign relations of Morocco
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Moroccos relationships vary greatly between African, Arab, and Western states. Morocco has had ties to the West in order to gain economic. France and Spain remain the trade partners, as well as the primary creditors. From the total investments in Morocco, the European Union invests approximately 73. 5%, whereas. Many countries from the Persian Gulf and Maghreb regions are getting involved in large-scale development projects in Morocco. Foreign relations have had a significant impact on economic and social development in Morocco, certain evidence of foreign influence is through the many development projects, loans, investments, and free trade agreements that Morocco has with other countries. An example of recent foreign influence is through loan agreements, Morocco signed three loan agreements with the French Development Agency in 2009, totalling up to 155 million euros. These were for the purpose of reforming the system, rural roads and rehabilitation. Policies associated with foreign relations are determined by the king, King Mohamed VI, Morocco has had a history of monarch rule. For example, the king of Morocco in 1965 suspended parliament and this was in response to the discovery of a plot on the kings life, of which the political party, UNFP, was accused. Foreign relations with western powers became strained as a result of this, portraying Morocco as a democratic state became important if Morocco wished to receive loans and investments by foreign powers. Moroccos current relations with some countries are related to its colonial history, Morocco was secretly partitioned by Spain and France and in 1912 Morocco became a protectorate. After achieving independence in 1956, Morocco still has a relationship with its former colonizers. Spain and France are currently the largest exporting and importing partners to Morocco, French is still popularly spoken and remains the second language in Morocco whilst Spanish is also widespread, particularly in the northern regions. France now is home to more than a million Moroccans legally residing in the country and this is the largest population of Moroccans in a country, followed next by Spain. These former colonizers remain influential in matters, such as development projects, investments, trade. Relations with foreign powers, especially with the West, have also strengthened as Morocco has liberalized its economy. In 1993 there was major privatization and markets were opened up to foreign powers, Morocco now is focusing more on promoting foreign direct investments

27.
Politics of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
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The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic claims the whole Western Sahara, a territory most of which is currently administered by Morocco as the Southern Provinces. SADR control some part of the territory, called the Free Zone and its government seats in Tindouf, Algeria. According to its constitution, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is a form of one-party state, the Polisario fronts SADR claims to administer a portion to the east of the Moroccan Wall. The Polisarios government-in-exile was seated as member of the Organisation of African Unity in 1984, guerrilla activities continued until a United Nations-monitored cease-fire was implemented September 6,1991 via the mission MINURSO. The mission patrols the separation line between the two territories, Morocco accepted the plan, while Algeria and the Polisario Front rejected it. Algeria proposed a partition of the territory instead, Polisario has accepted the plan, but Morocco has rejected it. The Government of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is headed by President, the Sahrawi National Council is the legislature of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic government in exile. It has 53 members, elected for a term in 11 constituencies. The Sahrawi population in the camps in Algeria as well as in the Free Zone participates in elections to the institutions of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. The most recent election for the Sahrawi National Council took place between 17 February and 19 February 2008, the foreign relations of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic are conducted by the Polisario Front, which maintains a network of representation offices and embassies in foreign countries. It has conducted diplomatic relations with states and international organisations since its inception in 1973, in 1966, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 22/29 affirmed for the first time the Sahrawi right on self-determination. Foreign relations of Morocco#Western Sahara Legal status of Western Sahara Janos, Besenyo

28.
Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs
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The Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs is an advisory committee to the Moroccan government on the Western Sahara. It was devised by King of Morocco, Hassan II in the 1970s and it was re-established by his son, Mohammed VI in early 2006, after a new autonomy plan was devised to replace the United Nations Baker Plan. The autonomy plan is opposed by the Polisario Front, which demands that the United Nations resolutions calling for a referendum be implemented. The CORCAS is intended as a body for proposals related to what Morocco calls its Southern Provinces. The Council is also intended to facilitate dialogue with the Sahrawi in the camps of Tindouf. The 141 members of CORCAS are Moroccan and Sahrawi political and traditional notables, representatives for women and youth groups, the members are appointed by the Moroccan government and support the Moroccan claims on Western Sahara. Of these members 14 are women, notably, the father of the late Polisario Front leader Mohamed Abdelaziz is a member of the CORCAS. There are nine vice-presidents, Khaddad El Moussaoui, Hassan Derham, Abdelaziz Abba, Omar Bouida, Ali Salem Chegaf, Othmane Ila, Hassana Cherif, Breika Zerouali, the mandate of the Council expired on March 25,2010, never renewed. The CORCAS leadership travels extensively and is featured in the Moroccan press. Its chairman, Khalihenna Ould Errachid, regularly attends meetings in foreign forums, such as the UN, among others, the CORCAS President has met with the President of the Peoples Republic of China, the former French foreign minister, and various other international officials. Many civilians were launched into space from helicopters or buried alive simply for being Sahrawis, in his opinion, the countrys actions in the Western Sahara were alienating Sahrawis, and thus could push more youth towards what he defined as separatism

29.
Ifni War
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The city of Sidi Ifni was incorporated into the Spanish colonial empire in 1860. In 1946, the various coastal and inland colonies were consolidated as Spanish West Africa. Sultan Mohammed V encouraged efforts to re-capture the land and personally funded anti-Spanish conspirators, Moroccan insurgents, violent demonstrations against Spanish rule erupted in Ifni on April 10,1957, followed by civil strife and widespread killings of those loyal to Spain. In response, Generalissimo Franco dispatched two battalions of the Spanish Legion, Spains elite fighting force, to El Aaiún in June, Spanish military mobilization resulted in the Moroccan army converging near Ifni. On October 23,1957, two villages on the outskirts of Sidi Ifni, Goulimine and Bou Izarguen, were occupied by 1,500 Moroccan soldiers, the encirclement of Ifni was the beginning of the Ifni War. Two more Legionary battalions reached the Spanish Sahara before the opening of hostilities, on 21 November, Spanish intelligence in Ifni reported that attacks were imminent by Moroccans operating out of Tafraout. Two days later, Spanish lines of communication were cut, although the Moroccan drive into Sidi Ifni was easily repulsed, two nearby Spanish outposts were abandoned in the face of enemy attacks and many others remained under heavy siege. At Tiluin,60 Tiradores de Ifni, struggled to hold off a force of several hundred Moroccans, on November 25, a relief attempt was authorized. Five CASA2.111 bombers, bombed enemy positions, while a number of CASA352 transports dropped a force of 75 paratroopers into the outpost. On 3 December, soldiers of the Spanish Legions 6th battalion arrived, breaking the siege, all military and civilian personnel were then evacuated overland to Sidi Ifni. The relief of Telata was less successful, leaving Sidi Ifni on 24 November aboard several old trucks, a platoon of the Spanish Legion paratroop battalion under Captain Ortiz de Zárate made slow progress through difficult terrain. This problem was compounded by frequent Moroccan ambushes, which by the day had left several men wounded and forced the Spaniards off the road. On 26 November, food ran out, the Spanish, low on ammunition, resumed their advance, only to dig in again in the face of repeated enemy attacks. Rations were dropped by air, but Spanish casualties continued to mount, one of the dead was Captain Ortiz de Zárate. On 2 December, a column of infantry, among them the erstwhile defenders of Telata, broke through the Moroccan lines, the survivors of the paratroop detachment reached Sidi Ifni once more on 5 December. The company had suffered two dead and fourteen wounded, initial Moroccan attacks had been generally successful. In the space of two weeks, the Moroccans and their allies had asserted control over most of Ifni. Simultaneous attacks had been launched throughout Spanish Sahara, overrunning garrisons and ambushing convoys, consequently, Moroccan units, resupplied and greatly reinforced, tried to surround and besiege Sidi Ifni, hoping to incite a popular uprising

30.
Western Sahara War
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The Western Sahara War was an armed struggle between the Sahrawi indigenous Polisario Front and Morocco between 1975 and 1991, being the most significant phase of the Western Sahara conflict. In late 1975, Moroccan government organized the Green March of some 350,000 Moroccan citizens, escorted by around 20,000 troops, while at first met with just minor resistance by the POLISARIO, Morocco later engaged a long period of guerrilla warfare with the Sahrawi nationalists. During the late 1970s, the Polisario Front, desiring to establish an independent state in the territory, in 1979, Mauritania withdrew from the conflict after signing a peace treaty with the POLISARIO. The war continued in low intensity throughout the 1980s, though Morocco made several attempts to take the hand in 1989–1991. A cease-fire agreement was reached between the Polisario Front and Morocco in September 1991. Some sources put the death toll between 10,000 and 20,000 people. The conflict has shifted from military to civilian resistance. A peace process, attempting to resolve the conflict has yet produced any permanent solution to Sahrawi refugees, today most of the territory of Western Sahara is under Moroccan control, while the inland parts are governed by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, managed by the Polisario Front. In 1884 Spain claimed a protectorate over the coast from Cape Bojador to Cap Blanc, later, the Spanish extended their area of control. In 1958 Spain joined the separate districts of Saguia el-Hamra. Raids and rebellions by the indigenous Saharan population kept the Spanish forces out of much of the territory for a long time, French forces defeated him when he tried to conquer Marrakesh, and in retaliation destroyed the holy city of Smara in 1913. Not until the destruction of Smara in 1934, by joint Spanish and French forces. Another uprising in 1956 –1958, initiated by the Moroccan Army of Liberation, led to heavy fighting, however, unrest simmered, and in 1967 the Harakat Tahrir arose to challenge Spanish rule peacefully. After the events of the Zemla Intifada in 1970, when Spanish police destroyed the organization and disappeared its founder, Muhammad Bassiri, Sahrawi nationalism again took a militant turn. In 1971 a group of young Sahrawi students began organizing what came to be known as The Embryonic Movement for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro. The Polisario Front was formally constituted on 10 May 1973 in the Mauritanian city of Zouirate and its first Secretary General was El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed. On 20 May he led the Khanga raid, Polisarios first armed action, in which a Spanish post manned by a team of Tropas Nomadas was overrun, at this point, Polisarios manpower included perhaps 800 men, but they were backed by a larger network of supporters. While Spain started negotiating a handover of power in the summer of 1975, it ceded the administrative control of the territory to Mauritania, however, on 31 October 1975, Moroccan troops crossed into the territory from the north-east, advancing towards Mahbes and Farciya

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Gdeim Izik protest camp
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While protests were initially peaceful, they were later marked by clashes between Sahrawi civilians and Moroccan security forces. Some referred to the protests as the Third Sahrawi Intifada, following the First, the number of protesters increased rapidly in the first weeks from a few hundred khaimas to several thousand coming from other towns of Western Sahara and southern Morocco. By the first week of November, the Gdeim Izik protest camps population was estimated at around 5,000, on October 24, a vehicle trying to enter the camp was fired upon by Moroccan Army forces. As a result, 14-year-old Nayem Elgarhi died and other passengers were injured, according to the Moroccan Interior ministry, a bullet was fired from the vehicle forcing the security forces to return fire, with a final toll of one dead and three injured. However, according to the Polisario front, there were no weapons in the vehicle, elgarhis family denounced the boys secret burial, demanding a trial for the officers who shot him. On the early morning of November 8, the protest camp was dismantled by Moroccan police forces, according to the Moroccan Interior Ministry, no firearms were used and the civilians on the camp were deployed as human shields. Confronting them was a group of protesters that used stones, knives. The riots later expanded to El Aaiun and other towns like Smara, in El Aaiun, protesters took to the streets in the morning, as there were no communications with the protest camp and they had no information about their relatives and friends in the camp. In the afternoon, with the return of the forces deployed in Gdeim Izik, finally, the African Union called upon Moroccos government to refrain from the use of force, and follow the path of discussion as the only productive means to resolve the crisis. European Union, On November 25, the European Parliament approved a resolution about the events in Western Sahara, United Nations, On 17 November, the United Nations Security Council condemned the violence during the dismantlement of the camp. Finally, the commission reminded the violation of the Right of Information, the Cuban parliament rejected the Moroccan aggression and demanded the United Nations Security Council exercise its influence to stop the actions. France, French Foreign Affairs minister, Bernard Kouchner, qualified on 9 November the events on Western Sahara as very serious and he also regretted the expulsion from Morocco of French communist deputy Jean-Paul Lecoq, who was trying to reach El Aaiún. It is not permissible that a representative of the nation had been expelled from the territory of a friendly country he added. Ireland, Irish Foreign Affairs minister, Micheál Martin, expressed on 9 November deep concern about reports concerning the Sahrawi protest camp. He regretted the deaths, violence and the reaction of the Moroccan security forces to what had been a peaceful protest on the part of Saharawi activists. Finally, he called both sides to act responsibly and avoid deterioration of the situation, italy, On 9 November, Italian Foreign Affairs minister, Franco Frattini, said that we are extremely concerned about the death and injuries of several individuals during the clashes. Panama, The Foreign Relations ministry of Panama expressed their concerns about the regrettable acts of violence. It also called the parts to respect human rights, avoid escalation of violence, according to the Polisario Front,36 Sahrawis were killed,723 wounded, and 163 were arrested

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2011 Western Saharan protests
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They were related to the Gdeim Izik protest camp in Western Sahara established the previous fall, which had resulted in violence between Sahrawi activists and Moroccan security forces and supporters. No significant protests were reported beyond May 2011, though international media coverage of Western Sahara is incomplete at best, there is renewed calls for peaceful protests from the Polisario Front. While protests were peaceful, they were later marked by clashes between civilians and security forces. On 25 February 2011, clashes were reported in Dakhla, the second largest city of Western Sahara, the next day, hundreds of protesters gathered on the city center, protesting against police inaction on the previous night. They attacked government buildings, banks and shops using stones and gas cylinders, the music festival was then suspended. On the night, riots started again without police presence, on Friday, police were deployed in the streets to prevent new protests. Official Moroccan press agency reported that two civilians were intentionally run over by a four-wheel drive vehicle driven by protesters, and that 14 people were injured. According to a Radio France International reporter, at least 100 people were injured, the Moroccan security forces intervened then and dispersed the demonstration. According to the Polisario, between 13 and 68 people were injured during the intervention of the Police, including three people carrying Spanish citizenship, the group also claimed that though police and intelligence officers kept a close watch on the vigil, protesters were nonviolent and no clashes erupted. These groups also claimed other protests were being held in solidarity with Laayounes activists in more cities. However, these reports have not been independently verified, a sit-in at the family home of a Sahrawi boy allegedly killed by Moroccan police was dispersed on 19 May, with 30 protesters left injured by security officers, pro-Sahrawi media reported. A handful of activists in Essmara also started a sit-in and hunger strike to protest the suspension of their wages for visiting Polisario-administered refugee camps in the Algerian Sahara and it will work in Western Sahara too

33.
Sahrawi refugee camps
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With most of the original refugees still living in the camps, the situation is among the most protracted in the world. The limited opportunities for self-reliance in the desert environment have forced the refugees to rely on international humanitarian assistance for their survival. However, the Tindouf camps differ from the majority of camps in the level of self-organization. Most affairs and camp life organization is run by the refugees themselves, the camps are divided into five wilayas named after towns in Western Sahara, Laayoune, Awserd, Smara, Dakhla and more recently Cape Bojador. In addition comes the smaller satellite camp February 27, surrounding the school for women. The encampments are spread out over a large area. While Laayoune, Smara, Awserd, February 27 and Rabouni all lie within an hours drive of the Algerian city of Tindouf, the camps are also the headquarters of the 6th military region of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic. The refugee camps are governed by Polisario, being part of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. SADRs government in exile and administration are located in the Rabouni camp, the Tindouf camps are divided into administrative sub-units electing their own officials to represent the neighbourhoods in political decision-making. Each of the four wilayas are divided into six or seven daïras, local committees distribute basic goods, water and food, while daïra authorities made up by the representatives of the hays organize schools, cultural activities and medical services. Some argue that this results in a form of democracy on the level of camp administration. Women are active on several levels of administration, and UNHCR has appraised their importance in camp administration, according to Polisario, Algeria does not intervene in their organization, treating the area as effectively under Sahrawi self-rule, though statements by former Polisario responsibles contradict that. While the Algerian military has a significant presence in the city of Tindouf. Camp residents are subject to the constitution and laws of SADR, a local justice system, with courts and prisons, is administered by Polisario. Local qadis have jurisdiction over personal status and family law issues, while teaching materials are still scarce, the literacy rate has increased from about 5% at the formation of the camps to 90% in 1995. Childrens education is obligatory, and several thousands have received university educations in Algeria, Cuba, one former camp resident claimed to have been forcefully sent as a child to an indoctrination camp in Cuba, where he was taught ot use firearms. The camps have 27 clinics, a hospital and four regional hospitals. Men perform military service in the forces of the SADR

34.
Green March
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Nevertheless, the events quickly escalated into a fully waged war between Morocco and the militias of the Polisario, the Western Sahara War, which would last for 16 years. Morocco later gained control over the former Spanish Sahara, which it continues to hold, Morocco, to the north of the Spanish Sahara, had long claimed that the territory was historically an integral part of Morocco. Mauritania to the south argued similarly that the territory was in fact Mauritanian, Morocco intended to vindicate its claims by demanding a verdict from the International Court of Justice, which was issued on 16 October 1975. Instead, the court argued, the population were the owners of the land. This meant that regardless of political solution was found to the question of sovereignty. Complicating matters, a UN visiting mission had concluded on 15 October, the day before the ICJ verdict was released, within hours of the ICJ verdicts release, he announced the organizing of a green march to Spanish Sahara, to reunite it with the Motherland. The Green March was a popular march of enormous proportions. On 6 November 1975 approximately 350,000 unarmed Moroccans converged on the city of Tarfaya in southern Morocco, as the marchers reached the border, the Spanish Armed Forces were ordered not to fire to avoid bloodshed. The Spanish troops also cleared some previously mined zones, according to Morocco, the exercise of sovereignty by the Moroccan state was characterized by official pledges of allegiance to the sultan. The Moroccan government was of the opinion that this allegiance existed during several centuries before the Spanish occupation and that it was a legal and political tie. The sultan Hassan I, for example, had carried out two expeditions in 1886 in order to put an end to foreign incursions in this territory and to officially invest several caids and cadis. In its presentation to the ICJ, the Moroccan side also mentioned the levy of taxes as an instance of the exercise of sovereignty. Even taking account of the structure of that State, they do not show that Morocco displayed any effective and exclusive State activity in Western Sahara. The Green March caught Spain in a moment of political crisis, the dictator General Franco, who had been leading the country for almost 40 years, was dying. Only the year before, the Portuguese government had been toppled by the Portuguese armed forces after becoming bogged down in wars in Angola. Under pressure from Morocco, Spain also agreed that no representatives of the population would be present in the negotiations that resulted in the 14 November Madrid Accords. This was a treaty which divided Spanish Sahara between Mauritania and Morocco, Spain received a 35% concession in the phosphate mines of Bou Craa and offshore fishing rights that were not respected by Morocco. Morocco and Mauritania then formally annexed the parts they had been allotted in the Accords

35.
Demographics of Western Sahara
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All data about demographic information regarding Western Sahara is extremely error prone, regardless of source. Following the 1975 Green March, the Moroccan state has sponsored settlement schemes enticing thousands of Moroccans to move into the Moroccan-occupied part of Western Sahara, by 2015, it was estimated that Moroccan settlers made up at least two thirds of the 500,000 inhabitants. The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated, modern Standard Arabic and Spanish, the former colonial language, are the official languages of the Polisario Front, based in Tindouf, Algeria. Hassaniya, an Arabic dialect, is the language spoken in Western Sahara. There is also a significant presence of Berber language speakers in the parts of the territory of Western Sahara. Hassaniya, primarily spoken at home, is dominated by the Moroccan dialect spoken in the streets, workplace and this is because the great majority of the population consists of Moroccans who settled in Western Sahara. French is also used by the Moroccan administration. The Moroccan constitution stipulates two official languages for the Kingdom of Morocco, including Western Sahara, Berber and Arabic, Spanish is used to document Sahrawi poetry and oral traditions and has also be used in Sahrawi literature. A group of Sahrawi poets known as Generación de la Amistad saharaui produce Sahrawi literature in Spanish, sunni Islam is the major religion in Western Sahara. Sunni Muslims constitute about 99. 9% of the population, prior to 1975 there were over 20,000 Roman Catholics in Western Sahara but as of 2007 there were only around 100. 69.66 deaths/1,000 live births total population,54.32 yearsmale,52 yearsfemale,56.73 years 4, the major bulk of Saharawis became refugees during the war between the Polisario Front and Morocco. The south-western desert region near Tindouf offered a potential safe region, Algeria, in its rivalry with Morocco, offered the Sahrawis a safe place to settle and actively supported the Algerian made guerrilla-movement of the POLISARIO. The next Saharawi exodus, although on a scale, took place in 1979 when Mauritania withdrew from the conflict. Exact figures cannot be provided for the numbers that fled the territory in two waves, but the estimations are between 1/3 and 2/3 of the total population at that time. The current size of the population in the camps is believed to be around 165,000. Used by the Algerian government, this figure is the most widely quoted by NGOs and is used by the UNHCR. In the 2004 WFP meeting in Rome, the number of refugees was officially recognized at 158,000, legal status of Western Sahara Demographics of Morocco

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Moroccan Wall
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The Moroccan Wall of Western Sahara is an approximately 2,700 km long structure, mostly a sand wall, running through Western Sahara and the southeastern portion of Morocco. It separates the Moroccan occupied, and controlled, areas and the Polisario-controlled areas that lies along its eastern and southern border. According to maps from the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara or the UNHCR, the fortifications lie in uninhabited or very sparsely inhabited territory. They consist of sand and stone walls or berms about 3 m in height, with bunkers, the barrier minebelt that runs along the structure is thought to be the longest continuous minefield in the world. The following is one observers description of the Berm, In all, the main line of fortifications extends for about 2,500 km. A section extends about 200 km into southeastern Morocco Significant lines of fortifications also lie deep within the Moroccan-controlled area and their exact number and location are a source of some confusion for overseas commentators. All major settlements, the capital El Aaiún, and the mine at Bou Craa lie far into the Moroccan-held side. The fortifications were built by Moroccan forces starting in 1981. Effectively, after the completion of the wall, Morocco has controlled the bulk of Western Sahara territory that lies to the north and west of it, the Polisario-founded Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic controls the mostly uninhabited Free Zone, which comprises all areas to the east of the barrier. Units from the United Nations mission MINURSO separate the two sides, and enforce regulations on their troops. In the summer of 2005, the Moroccan Army accelerated the expulsion of illegal immigrants detained in northern Morocco to the side of the wall. The Polisario Front and the MINURSO rescued several dozen lost in the desert, by October, the Polisario had received 22 immigrants in Mehaires,46 in Tifariti and 97 in Bir Lehlu. They were from African countries, except a group of 48 who were from Bangladesh, Western attention to the wall, and to the Moroccan annexation of the Western Sahara in general, has been minimal, apart from Spain. In Africa, the annexation of Western Sahara by Morocco has attracted more attention. Algeria supports the Polisario Front in its long-running desert war to oppose Moroccan control of the disputed area, the Organization of African Unity/African Union and United Nations have proposed negotiated solutions, though the African Unions stance on Western Sahara led to Moroccos exit from the organisation. Since 2008, a demonstration called The Thousand Column is held annually in the desert against the barrier by international human rights activists, in the 2009 edition, a teenage Sahrawi refugee named Ibrahim Hussein Leibeit lost half of his right leg in a landmine explosion. The incident happened when Ibrahim and dozens of young Sahrawis crossed the line into a minefield while aiming to throw stones to the side of the wall. The wall was built in six stages, and the area behind the wall was expanded from an area near Morocco in the north to most of the western

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Human rights in Western Sahara
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The Government of Morocco sees Western Sahara as its Southern Provinces. The Moroccan government considers the Polisario Front as a separatist movement given the alleged Moroccan origins of some of its leaders, the United States, the European Union, the African Union and the United Nations do not recognize the sovereignty of Morocco over Western Sahara. Neither claim has met with support abroad, the USA, EU, AU and UN refused to include the Polisario Front on their lists of terrorist organizations. Human rights are repressed in the Moroccan-controlled territories of Western Sahara, according to Amnesty International in 2003, while the situation has improved since the early 1990s, the political liberalization in Morocco has not had the same effect on Western Sahara according to Amnesty International in 2004. When it comes to having a pro-independence position, there are allegations of police abuse and torture by Polisario-organisations. and suspected dissidents are harassed. The United States State Department reported in 2000 that there were arbitrary arrests of Sahrawis, prisoners of conscience were kept in squalid conditions according to Polisario-groups. Some Sahrawis also complain of discrimination in favor of Moroccan settlers. The Moroccan response to the demonstrations of 2005 was very aggressive, in a criticised mass trial in December 2005,14 leading Sahrawi activists were sentenced to prison sentences, many more had previously been detained. Most of these prisoners were released by royal decree in the spring of 2006. According to the US State Departments 2006 report on Morocco The law generally provides for freedom of speech, the government generally respected these rights in practice, as long as Islam, the monarchy, and territorial integrity were not criticized. Throughout the year several publications tested the boundaries of press freedom, foreign journalists and visiting missions have been prevented from visiting the territory and in some instances deported from it. Sahrawi human rights organizations have been refused permission to operate in Morocco, the Sahrawi branch of the Moroccan Forum for Truth and Justice was dissolved in 2003, and its members arrested. They were later released in the royal amnesties of 2006, or before that, Morocco has responded by blockading Internet access to these sites in Morocco and in Western Sahara, prompting accusations of Internet censorship. These websites, promoting independence for Western Sahara, have been censored since the beginning of December it reports. In 2010 around 520 Sahrawi civilians remained disappeared by Moroccan forces, according to human rights groups, since then, there have been no further releases of disappeared prisoners. Amnesty International stated in a 1999 report that, in May 2005, the remains of 43 Sahrawi disappeared were exhumed from secret prisons on the south of Morocco. They were detained in Western Sahara & southern Morocco in the 1970s & 1980s, many civilians were launched into space from helicopters or buried alive simply for being Sahrawis. Also, the testimonies of witnesses have not been published yet, in March 2010, a new grave was found by Bou Craa workers on a phosphate mine with 7 corpses, supposedly Sahrawi nomads killed by Moroccan forces during the mid-1970s

United Nations Security Council
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The Security Council held its first session on 17 January 1946. Like the UN as a whole, the Security Council was created following World War II to address the failings of an international organization. The Security Council consists of fifteen members, the great powers that were the victors of World War II—the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, Franc

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UN Security Council Chamber in New York City

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United Nations Security Council

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British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin at the Yalta Conference, February 1945

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US Secretary of State Colin Powell holds a model vial of anthrax while giving a presentation to the Security Council in February 2003.

Boujdour
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Cape Bojador is a headland on the northern coast of Western Sahara, at 26°07 37N, 14°29 57W. as well as the name of the large nearby town with a population of 41,178. The name of the province also derives its name from the cape. It is shown on charts with the original Portuguese name Cabo Bojador. It is said that it is known as the Bulging Cape. Th

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Lighthouse and Moroccan military base in modern day Bojador.

China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin

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Yinxu, ruins of an ancient palace dating from the Shang Dynasty (14th century BCE)

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Flag

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Some of the thousands of life-size Terracotta Warriors of the Qin Dynasty, c. 210 BCE

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The Great Wall of China was built by several dynasties over two thousand years to protect the sedentary agricultural regions of the Chinese interior from incursions by nomadic pastoralists of the northern steppes.

France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territ

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One of the Lascaux paintings: a horse – Dordogne, approximately 18,000 BC

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Flag

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The Maison Carrée was a temple of the Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus (present-day Nîmes) and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the Roman Empire.

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With Clovis ' conversion to Catholicism in 498, the Frankish monarchy, elective and secular until then, became hereditary and of divine right.

Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety

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Kievan Rus' in the 11th century

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Flag

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The Baptism of Kievans, by Klavdy Lebedev

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Sergius of Radonezh blessing Dmitry Donskoy in Trinity Sergius Lavra, before the Battle of Kulikovo, depicted in a painting by Ernst Lissner

United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border wi

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Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, was erected around 2500 BC.

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Flag

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The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the Battle of Hastings, 1066, and the events leading to it.

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The Treaty of Union led to a single united kingdom encompassing all Great Britain.

United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean,

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Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764

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Flag

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The signing of the Mayflower Compact, 1620.

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The Declaration of Independence: the Committee of Five presenting their draft to the Second Continental Congress in 1776

Angola
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Angola /æŋˈɡoʊlə/, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country in Southern Africa. It is the seventh-largest country in Africa and is bordered by Namibia to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Zambia to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to west. The exclave province of Cabinda has borders with the Republic of the Congo,

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An image depicting Portuguese encounter with Kongo Royal family

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Flag

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Portuguese troops heading for Angola during World War I.

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Monument to the memory of Agostinho Neto and the Angolan struggle for independence, in Luanda

Bulgaria
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Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, with a territory of 110,994 square kilometres, Bulgaria is Europes 16th-largest country. Organised prehistoric cultures began developing on current Bulgarian la

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Objects from Varna necropolis, parts of the oldest golden treasure in the world.

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Khan Krum feasts with his nobles after the battle of Pliska. His servant (far right) brings the wine-filled skull cup of Nicephorus I.

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The Church of the Holy Forty Martyrs, built and painted on the order of Bulgarian Emperor Ivan Asen II in honour of his victory near Klokotnitsa in 1230.

Chile
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Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a South American country occupying a long, narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, Chilean territory includes the Pacific islands of Juan Fernández, Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas, an

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The Mapuche people were the original inhabitants of southern and central Chile.

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Pedro de Valdivia

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Bernardo O'Higgins, The Supreme Director of Chile.

Cameroon
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Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Cameroons coastline lies on the Bight of Biafra, part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. French and English are the languages

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Bamum script

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Former president Ahmadou Ahidjo ruled from 1960 until 1982.

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A statue of a chief in Bana, West Region.

Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular

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The Nebra sky disk is dated to c. 1600 BC.

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Flag

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Martin Luther (1483–1546) initiated the Protestant Reformation.

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Foundation of the German Empire in Versailles, 1871. Bismarck is at the center in a white uniform.

Guinea
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Guinea /ˈɡɪni/, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a country on the West coast of Africa. Guinea has a population of 10.5 million and an area of 245,860 square kilometres, the president is directly elected by the people and is head of state and head of government. The unicameral Guinean National Assembly is the body of the country. The judicial

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Samori Ture was the founder of the Wassoulou Empire, an Islamic state in present-day Guinea that resisted French colonial rule in West Africa from 1882 until Ture's capture in 1898.

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President Ahmed Sékou Touré was supported by the Communist bloc states and in 1961 visited Yugoslavia.

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Monument to commemorate the 1970 military victory over the Portuguese raid. The only objective not accomplished by the Portuguese raid was the capture of Ahmed Sékou Touré.

Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by t

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Lady of Elche

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Altamira Cave paintings, in Cantabria.

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Celtic castro in A Guarda, Galicia.

Syria
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Syrias capital and largest city is Damascus. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Sunni Arabs make up the largest religious group in Syria. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, in the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of th

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Female figurine, 5000 BC. Ancient Orient Museum.

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God head, the kingdom of Yamhad (c. 1600 BC)

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Ebla royal palace c. 2400 BC

Western Sahara conflict
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The Western Sahara conflict is an ongoing conflict between the Polisario Front and the Kingdom of Morocco. The conflict is the continuation of the past insurgency by Polisario against the Spanish colonial forces in 1973–75, today the conflict is dominated by unarmed civil campaigns of the Polisario Front and their self-proclaimed SADR state to gain

Spanish Sahara
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Spanish Sahara was the name used for the modern territory of Western Sahara when it was occupied and ruled as a territory by Spain between 1884 and 1975. It had been one of the most recent acquisitions of the Spanish Empire, as well as one of its last remaining holdings, Spain gave up its Saharan possession following Moroccan demands and internatio

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Postage stamp issued in 1924.

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Greater Morocco
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Current usage most frequently occurs in a critical context accusing Morocco, largely in discussing the disputed Western Sahara, of irredentist claims on neighbouring territories. Irredentists, official and unofficial Moroccan claims on territories viewed by Moroccans as having been some form of Moroccan sovereignty are rhetorically tied back to an

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Greater Morocco

Greater Mauritania
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Greater Mauritania is a term for the Mauritanian irredentist claim to Western Sahara, and possibly other Moorish or Sahrawi-populated areas of the western Sahara desert. The term was first used by Mauritanias first president, Mokhtar Ould Daddah, in 1957, Ould Daddah stated I therefore call on our brothers in the Spanish Sahara to dream of this eco

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The proposed Greater Mauritania shown within Africa

Polisario Front
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It is an observer member of the Socialist International. The United Nations considers the Polisario Front to be the representative of the Sahrawi people. The Polisario Front is outlawed in the parts of Western Sahara under Moroccan control and they called themselves the Constituent Congress of the Polisario Front. Its first Secretary General was El

Sahrawi National Union Party
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Partido de Unión Nacional Saharaui was a short-lived political party set up by Francoist Spain to rally indigenous support in its rebellious Spanish Sahara colony. The PUNS was created in late 1974 as the Partido Revolucionario Progresivo and it was composed mainly of members of the Djemaa, a tribalist political body set up for similar purposes in

Southern Provinces
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The Southern Provinces or Moroccan Sahara are the terms used by the Moroccan government for Western Sahara. These two official Moroccan denominations explicitly include all of Western Sahara, the Moroccan government favours Southern Provinces for its geographical obviousness, and because of the sensitivity of the word Sahara in Morocco. The Polisar

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The Southern Provinces. The land west of the red line, which indicates the Moroccan Wall, is under Moroccan control

Tiris al-Gharbiyya
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Tiris al-Gharbiyya was the name for the area of Western Sahara under Mauritanian control between 1975 and 1979. Mauritania annexed the southern third of the former Spanish colony of Spanish Sahara in 1975 after the Madrid Accords, the latter was the preferred option of the Polisario Front, a Sahrawi organization which turned its guerrilla forces ag

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Free Zone (region)
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For Morocco, it is a buffer territory. The area is separated from the rest of the Western Sahara territory by a 2,200 kilometer -long wall. flanked by one of the worlds largest minefields, the border is often referred to as the Berm. The zone was established as a Polisario-held zone in a 1991 cease-fire between the Polisario Front and Morocco, whic

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The Spanish actress Verónica Forqué at the Sahara Film Festival.

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Tifariti, in the northeast of the zone, 2005

Political status of Western Sahara
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Western Sahara, formerly the Spanish colony of Spanish Sahara, is a disputed territory claimed by both the Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front. It is listed by the United Nations, as a territory and is thus included in the United Nations List of Non-Self-Governing Territories. Since the Madrid Accords of 1975, a part of Western Sahara has be

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President of the SADR, Mohamed Abdelaziz

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A demonstration in Bilbao for the independence of the Western Sahara.

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Photo of Former Assistant Secretary of State, David Welch (2005–2008) who in 2007 expressed strong support for Morocco and its autonomy plan in the conflict over Western Sahara, calling the plan a "serious and credible" solution.

Foreign relations of Morocco
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Moroccos relationships vary greatly between African, Arab, and Western states. Morocco has had ties to the West in order to gain economic. France and Spain remain the trade partners, as well as the primary creditors. From the total investments in Morocco, the European Union invests approximately 73. 5%, whereas. Many countries from the Persian Gulf

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The last page of 1786 treaty of friendship.

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Embassy of Morocco in Ottawa

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Morocco embassy in Tokyo, Japan

Politics of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
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The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic claims the whole Western Sahara, a territory most of which is currently administered by Morocco as the Southern Provinces. SADR control some part of the territory, called the Free Zone and its government seats in Tindouf, Algeria. According to its constitution, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is a form of o

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Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR)

Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs
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The Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs is an advisory committee to the Moroccan government on the Western Sahara. It was devised by King of Morocco, Hassan II in the 1970s and it was re-established by his son, Mohammed VI in early 2006, after a new autonomy plan was devised to replace the United Nations Baker Plan. The autonomy plan is oppo

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Family and education

Ifni War
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The city of Sidi Ifni was incorporated into the Spanish colonial empire in 1860. In 1946, the various coastal and inland colonies were consolidated as Spanish West Africa. Sultan Mohammed V encouraged efforts to re-capture the land and personally funded anti-Spanish conspirators, Moroccan insurgents, violent demonstrations against Spanish rule erup

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Ifni before the conflict and after

Western Sahara War
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The Western Sahara War was an armed struggle between the Sahrawi indigenous Polisario Front and Morocco between 1975 and 1991, being the most significant phase of the Western Sahara conflict. In late 1975, Moroccan government organized the Green March of some 350,000 Moroccan citizens, escorted by around 20,000 troops, while at first met with just

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Saharawi soldiers 1983

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Map of the Western Sahara; the red line is the military berm built by Morocco

Gdeim Izik protest camp
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While protests were initially peaceful, they were later marked by clashes between Sahrawi civilians and Moroccan security forces. Some referred to the protests as the Third Sahrawi Intifada, following the First, the number of protesters increased rapidly in the first weeks from a few hundred khaimas to several thousand coming from other towns of We

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The Gdeim Izik protest camp in late October 2010.

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Family and education

2011 Western Saharan protests
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They were related to the Gdeim Izik protest camp in Western Sahara established the previous fall, which had resulted in violence between Sahrawi activists and Moroccan security forces and supporters. No significant protests were reported beyond May 2011, though international media coverage of Western Sahara is incomplete at best, there is renewed c

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Locator map of the Western Sahara with zones of de facto control

Sahrawi refugee camps
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With most of the original refugees still living in the camps, the situation is among the most protracted in the world. The limited opportunities for self-reliance in the desert environment have forced the refugees to rely on international humanitarian assistance for their survival. However, the Tindouf camps differ from the majority of camps in the

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Laayoune refugee camp.

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View of the 27 February camp after the floods that devastated the camps in February 2006

Green March
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Nevertheless, the events quickly escalated into a fully waged war between Morocco and the militias of the Polisario, the Western Sahara War, which would last for 16 years. Morocco later gained control over the former Spanish Sahara, which it continues to hold, Morocco, to the north of the Spanish Sahara, had long claimed that the territory was hist

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A 100 dirham note from 1991 commemorating the Green March

Demographics of Western Sahara
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All data about demographic information regarding Western Sahara is extremely error prone, regardless of source. Following the 1975 Green March, the Moroccan state has sponsored settlement schemes enticing thousands of Moroccans to move into the Moroccan-occupied part of Western Sahara, by 2015, it was estimated that Moroccan settlers made up at lea

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Bilingual road sign in French and Arabic, Western Sahara

Moroccan Wall
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The Moroccan Wall of Western Sahara is an approximately 2,700 km long structure, mostly a sand wall, running through Western Sahara and the southeastern portion of Morocco. It separates the Moroccan occupied, and controlled, areas and the Polisario-controlled areas that lies along its eastern and southern border. According to maps from the United N

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Sahrawi women hold a protest in Western Sahara on the eastern side of the wall.

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Wall east of Mahbes.

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Wall south of Mahbes.

Human rights in Western Sahara
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The Government of Morocco sees Western Sahara as its Southern Provinces. The Moroccan government considers the Polisario Front as a separatist movement given the alleged Moroccan origins of some of its leaders, the United States, the European Union, the African Union and the United Nations do not recognize the sovereignty of Morocco over Western Sa

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Sahrawi civilian showing his head wounds caused by Moroccan police during a demonstration in Dakhla, 2 March 2011.

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Memorial commemorating the first use of the Red Cross symbol in an armed conflict during the Battle of Dybbøl (Denmark) in 1864; jointly erected in 1989 by the national Red Cross societies of Denmark and Germany.

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A demonstration in Bilbao for the independence of the Western Sahara.

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Photo of Former Assistant Secretary of State, David Welch (2005–2008) who in 2007 expressed strong support for Morocco and its autonomy plan in the conflict over Western Sahara, calling the plan a "serious and credible" solution.